FCW Insider: March 4

The Department of Justice is hoping to unmuddy the waters that blur legitimate cybersecurity research with illegal hacking. A new non-binding guidance offers DOJ thinking on how to navigate cyber intelligence gathering on the Internet, particularly for sites that advertise illegal services. Derek B. Johnson has more.

The Department of Homeland Security will appeal a district court decision that found that the appointment of Ken Cuccinelli to serve as acting head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service was made in violation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. At a House hearing, Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf got an earful from members about the growing roster of senior officials in acting roles at DHS. Adam Mazmanian reports.

The Government Accountability Office's new Science, Technology Assessment and Analytics team is getting an assist from the Centers of Excellence program at the General Services Administration. Mark Rockwell takes a look.

Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike reports on 2019's top targets for state-sponsored hacking groups. Derek has the story.

Quick Hits

*** Federal CIO Suzette Kent is pushing agencies to make plans to wrap up their IPv6 transitions. In a March 2 notice in the Federal Register and an accompanying memo, the Office of Management and Budget is asking agencies to have an IPv6 transition plan ready by the end of fiscal year 2021 with a goal of having IPv6 devices constitute 80% of IP-enabled assets on federal networks. Additionally, agencies must identify systems that can't operate in an IPv6 environment and come up with a schedule for their replacement or retirement. 

*** Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, introduced legislation to extend the 12-week family leave benefit to medical staffers at the Department of Veterans Affairs who were not covered under the provision passed in the recent National Defense Authorization Act.

*** The Office of Personnel Management's reading of the new parental leave benefit set to take effect on Oct. 1, 2020, puts limits on taking leave for child fostering. In its FY2021 budget justification, OPM proposed  granting 12 weeks of leave to foster a child -- even in cases where the foster parents are both federal employees. In a Feb. 27 letter to OPM chief Dale Cabaniss, the National Treasury Employees Union, objected to this interpretation of the new benefit.

"Each federal employee has the right to 12 weeks of paid parental leave and cutting that in half because their partner is also a federal employee discriminates against those families," NTEU National President Anthony Reardon stated in his letter.